The bird list has been steadily building up since I discovered my local patch in 2010. The 99th species was a marsh harrier that was seen during the winter and spring of 2012. I have spent the last year wondering what was going to be the landmark 100th. I had to wait until the 6th August for an answer when I heard a green sandpiper flying overhead whilst moth trapping.
A year and a half was a long time to wait for the hundredth bird, but it has seemed to break some kind of block and I immediately added a further two species the next day.
The 7th looked like it was the best day of the week to walk my butterfly transect, but I had to do it before starting work at 3pm. I always do the walk in reverse if I am working later on, so I headed out and up into Reffley Wood and towards the end/start of the transect.
As I approached a clearing close to the end/start, a Land Rover with horse box was coming down the track. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be there, but there was nothing I could do and proceeded to my starting point. I started the transect at 10:56 and started to walk back along the way I had just come and found the Land Rover now parked up and with the horse munching some hay that was on the side of the box.
It turned out to be a contractor for the Woodland Trust and we soon got chatting about conservation and I discovered that he had worked on some of the same nature reserves that I had back in the 90's. As we were talking, he spotted a reflection in the windscreen of the Land Rover. I looked up and was startled to see 4 common cranes flying overhead. I couldn't believe it! Common cranes flying over my patch and my 101st species for the patch.
We watched the cranes circling around and thought that they were getting ready to land on Roydon Common, which isn't too far away. But they were just using a thermal to gain some height. As we were watching them, a raptor came into view and started to do the same thing.
I didn't immediately recognise what type of raptor it was and I knew straight away that this was going to be another new patch bird. But what was it? It looked big and I could see that it wasn't one of the buzzards that regularly breed in the woods. I decided to compare the size of the wings with that of the cranes and realised they were much bigger. I then noticed that the tail of the raptor seemed too small for the size of the bird and that it was a much lighter colour. The wings were dead straight and looked like someone had tied a plank across it. A big and bulky raptor with huge, straight wings and a short, light coloured tail could only be one thing - a white-tailed eagle.
We were both ecstatic to see the cranes, but were dumbfounded to have a white-tailed eagle as well! We just looked at each other and laughed, not believing our luck for that day. I watched them all climbing higher and higher before having to leave to ensure I was able to get back home and have some lunch before starting work.
I was on such a high for the rest of the day, and I still am a week later! But then that is the beauty of having your own patch. It is moments like these that make all of the hard work worthwhile.
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